Boxborough development application edges closer to vote

Matt Mallio @actonbeacon

Tuesday

May 7, 2019 at 3:05 PMMay 7, 2019 at 3:35 PM

The Toll Brothers/Boxborough Town Center, LLC's proposal to construct 50 units of senior housing on several parcels of land on Massachusetts Avenue in Boxborough moved another step closer to a vote at the Boxborough Planning Board's meeting on Monday evening.

In the course of the meeting, which ended at about 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday, a decision was made to continue the hearing to Wednesday, May 15.

Originally, the plan called for 100 units of senior housing which, last April, the Boxborough Planning Board denied. This led to a lawsuit filed in land court. Instead of litigation, the Planning Board and developers agreed to enter into mediation. A decision was reached in late January which cut the number of proposed units to 50. As part of that agreement, the matter was brought back before the Planning Board and they must seek new site plan approval.

As part of that agreement, both the town and the Planning Board need to come to a decision by May 25 on the revised site plan within 90 days of submission.

Statement read

Planning Board Chair Abby Reip read a statement at the beginning of the hearing to address resident criticism of the settlement and how it was reached. Reip said she discussed the settlement with Select Board Chair Susan Bak and Town Counsel. She said she wanted to give residents as much information as possible about the settlement, how it was reached, and the repercussions should the town not uphold the settlement's terms.

As a part of entering into mediation, Reip said, the litigation was put on hold. The mediator was a retired land court judge with over 15 years experience on the bench and over 30 years in transactional real estate. Reip said the mediator, when pressed about the town's chances of a favorable verdict in litigation should mediation fail, said that in situations such as this, the town had a less than five percent chance of prevailing. Former Planning Board Chair John Markiewicz, Bak, former Town Planner Adam Duchesneau, and Town Counsel attended the mediation, along with the plaintiff and attorneys.

An agreement was eventually reached, Reip said, and while she said she understood that residents were unhappy with the settlement if the town cannot come up with a decision within the defined time frame, the matter would go back to litigation. Should that happen, the town would very likely not get a favorable decision and they would be left with the original plan of 100 units.

"We must move forward in the best interests of the town," said Reip.

Engineer's presentation

Greg Roy, an engineer with Ducharme and Dillis Civil Design Group who represented the developers, discussed the project, its lighting plans and traffic study. He summarized the traffic report, which he said only predicted traffic from the 50 proposed units and did not include neighboring traffic from the nearby Sheriff's Meadow development.

The busiest traffic times, Roy said, were Sunday and weekday evening peak traffic. There are 20 trips predicted for Sunday peak traffic, which he said equates to about one car every three minutes on Stow Road. There are 15 trips predicted for peak evening traffic, which is one car every four minutes on Stow Road.

"Those are pretty low numbers as far as traffic goes," Roy said.

Resident comments

Several residents asked multiple questions and raised concerns about the impact the project would have on the area, traffic, road access, as well as concerns about rock removal and the 90-day timeline. Associate Planning Board member Cindy Markowitz, who could not vote on site plans, criticized the timeline and said the updated site plan was submitted only a few weeks ago and the Board didn't have adequate time for review.

Developer Jim Fenton said he had been trying to get a plan in place for four years and wasn't interested in waiting any longer. Board members also mentioned the importance of adhering to the settlement's timeline.